Derek Wolfford
06-23-2003, 09:04 AM
Pearl welcomes our newest addition to the Pearl Percussion and Adams Concert roster...... Valerie Dee Naranjo.
Valerie is the percussionist on NBC's Saturday Night Live and she'll begin using all Pearl instruments this fall. She is also a major NY studio and broadway player as well as an avid African
Marimbist.
Valerie first performed on the gyil (pronounced JEE-lee, a West African virtuoso marimba and healing medium) in Ghana's Kobine Festival of Traditional Music, where in 1988 her playing led to the declaration of a chiefly decree in the Dagara nation that women be allowed, for the first time, to play the instrument. In 1996, she took a First Place in that festival's competition, currently the
only non-West Africans to do so.
Valerie received a BME at the University of Oklahoma and a MM at Ithaca College; studied with Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, David Samuels and others; has performed on six continents, including eight African countries; plays percussion and arranges for the SNL Band and Broadway's The Lion King; and has recorded and performed with The Philip Glass Ensemble, The Paul Winter Consort, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Airto Moreira, Zakir Hussein, Glen Velez and many others. She has released
several CDs of Native American and West African gyil music, and her series of written works and CDs.
Valerie is the percussionist on NBC's Saturday Night Live and she'll begin using all Pearl instruments this fall. She is also a major NY studio and broadway player as well as an avid African
Marimbist.
Valerie first performed on the gyil (pronounced JEE-lee, a West African virtuoso marimba and healing medium) in Ghana's Kobine Festival of Traditional Music, where in 1988 her playing led to the declaration of a chiefly decree in the Dagara nation that women be allowed, for the first time, to play the instrument. In 1996, she took a First Place in that festival's competition, currently the
only non-West Africans to do so.
Valerie received a BME at the University of Oklahoma and a MM at Ithaca College; studied with Leigh Howard Stevens, Gordon Stout, David Samuels and others; has performed on six continents, including eight African countries; plays percussion and arranges for the SNL Band and Broadway's The Lion King; and has recorded and performed with The Philip Glass Ensemble, The Paul Winter Consort, David Byrne, Tori Amos, Airto Moreira, Zakir Hussein, Glen Velez and many others. She has released
several CDs of Native American and West African gyil music, and her series of written works and CDs.